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Wednesday, September 22

To market, to market

Bit quiet on the blog front recently. I did actually write a post but felt it wasn't right and took it down - I'm a crazy worrier you know. We've had a sick, teething boy and various tradesmen in the house. Lots of tradesmen's bills to pay now. I've had a few of those "why do I actually persist with trying to have a business moments." It's pretty hard (as most of you will know) trying to juggle things around the kids. Generally it means, if I'm working, everything else slides - including housework, cooking and socialising. I've just cut Chloe back to one day a week in childcare and Arj had his first day (same day as Chloe) last week. The whole using childcare to work on a business that isn't really giving returns at the moment is very, very guilt inducing so if anything too negative happens on the work front it can make me feel like giving up pretty easily. Did that sentence make any sense?

I won't talk about the specific incident that triggered all this as it's over now and apologies have been made. The thing is I do love having my business (most of the time). It's been an amazing way for me to meet great friends (Mrs Burns and Mrs Smith, Kristen, Annie, Sophie, Selina and Jasperboy just for a start), it's given me so much more confidence in many areas - there was a time when I was embarassed about my making and challenged me to learn a huge amount. I get pretty toey if I don't get to sew or make for a while and, hey, I have to do something with the vast amounts of fabric that seems to make me buy it! So, I think the childcare is worth it. I think Arj will like playing with other littlies and I think it's been good for Chloe overall. I guess I'll always be in two minds about it.

Well, that was a bit of a stream of conciousness thing. It all just popped out. This was supposed to be about going to The Market in Hobart on October 3rd. Exciting. I'll come back later and do that post properly cos it deserves it.

3 comments:

I think we all have moments when we feel we have to justify our existence, especially as a stay at home Mum! You shouldn't feel guilty - you're just being human! (although I feel a bit of a hypocrite, coming from someone as guilt ridden as myself!!)

And sometimes buying the fabric can be just as much therapy as actually sewing with it. :-)

i had these dreams of working from home making all day - but then i realised it just wasn't going to happen, not for me anyway. now that i've accepted that and stopped trying to come up with new ideas all the time i'm enjoying things much more - and funnily enough, more and more opportunities have presented themselves right when i don't want them. i'm not trying to talk you out of it BTW, i know it sounds like it! i say good on you if you can make it work. i can't imagine how hard it is to have kids around all the time. and like you said, you gotta do something with all that fabric :) have fun at the market, it's a great little market, i hope you do great

As a previous work from home mum, I can say it is really hard to be disciplined enough not to procrastinate through your day. It can be done but you just need to allow yourself some slack. Be aware when you could be doing something productive and you are choosing not to, but don't kill yourself over it. I made sure the "work" space was where I went to do work and if the kids were home they knew that was what I was doing and if they were in that space they had to behave accordingly. My kids are 11 & 16 now so I know yours are so much younger but if you let them know, they will gradually understand that you are "working". My son at the age of 5 would answer my client phone and instead of just saying hello he would say "Hello this is Mackenzie speaking" - the client would think it was cute and also see there was another side to me. Don't feel guilty - do the work you set out to do - reward yourself (and that means YOU) when you have achieved the goal you set and be happy that you can work from home - there are a lot of people who would love to be in your position that can't! Sorry for the epistle!! Cathyxx